A review of the USU Student Health and Wellness Center started in September 2022 to look into the performance of the center and the services provided.
Robert Wagner, USU executive vice president and chief operational officer, was asked by former university president Noelle Cockett to lead this review of the health center.
Wagner said there was no end goal when starting this review and there was no plan already in place to replace management.
“We thought it would be a good time to just really take a deep dive into the center," Wagner said, "and really start asking ourselves just some fundamental questions like, is the center still serving students well? Is it accomplishing the goals and objectives that USU has?"
After reviewing the Health Center the university published a request for proposal for any outside companies that would be interested in managing the facility.
According to Wagner, they wanted to make sure with new management access to the center wouldn’t cost more for students and that the students wouldn’t have to go anywhere else.
“By bringing a medical provider in an organization that focuses on health care, we understand and know that they have a lot of resources that they can make available to our students that as an institution, we just couldn't," Wagner said.
Wagner added that Intermountain Health will also be able to help connect students to other resources and medical care in the community that the Student Health Center before could not provide and that the center will be closely monitored by university officials.
“This is something we're going to watch very carefully, as we go in, especially this first year to make sure that students' needs are being met," Wagner said. "Again, we take it very, very seriously, I take it seriously that student tuition is paying for this. And so students are number one here. And we need to make sure that their needs are being met.”
